Beneath the Moonflow
by Kissa-chan
Summary: As a child, Rikku was struck by an errant Thunder spell... Later, afraid of a Thunder Storm, she fell into the Moonflow and found something she feared more than Thunder. Trapped, stalked, and surrounded by decay... RATED R.


**Title; Beneath the Moonflow  
  
Rating; R, because I think it's a little violent to just be PG-13  
  
Genre; Horror  
  
Summary; The night after Rikku got struck by lightning, she went for a dip in the Moonflow and found more then she bargained for.  
**  
Standard disclaimers apply.  
  
The moonlight was pale in comparison to the dancing light of the pyreflies. The murky waters of the Moonflow were awash with their enchanting light. The surface of the water was smooth and unbroken by even one ripple.   
  
The heat of the summer night pressing in on her slight form, Rikku slipped from her tent. Keyakku and Aniku, her older brothers, were still both asleep in their own tents, judging by the sound of their snores. That was fine with her. She didn't want to have anything to do with them - not after what they had done to her that morning.  
  
She supposed, somewhere in her childish mind, that Keyakku had only been trying to protect her from the water fiend. He truly hadn't meant to strike her with thunder. He had just missed his mark. He hadn't meant to send electricity tearing through her five year old frame. Oh, and Aniku hadn't meant to laugh when she screamed in shocked surprise.  
  
They had cured her immediately, after all.  
  
But regardless, she was feeling slightly paranoid. In the sky overhead, dark clouds were gathering. They had been gathering nearly all day long, and Keyakku had warned that there would be a thunder storm that night. Rikku had shuddered at the thought and hadn't been able to sleep since.  
  
She approached the waters cautiously. Vaguely remembering her father telling her not to approach the Moonflow without adult supervision. "You're brothers will look after you!" he had barked.   
  
She dipped one toe into the water and fell back against the river bank. "Phew," she muttered, watching the clouds grow darker, blotting out the silvery moonlight. Then she saw a flash. Instantly she bolted upright, alarm covering every feature. "Lightning," she squeaked in terror.  
  
She turned and started back towards the tents, hoping Keyakku and Aniku would protect her. A peel of terrible thunder crashed around her as heavy raindrops began to fall, scattering the pyrefly light. "AGghhhhhh!" she screamed in terror as light flashed. She froze, unable to move foreword in fear of being hit.  
  
Two thunder rolls later and one lightning flash, she spun, eyes wild and searching for escape. Her shoeless heel encountered a rock and she lost her balance, plunging into the muddy Moonflow. Silence greeted her ears and she felt a sense of relief steal across her body. Finally, no more noise. And better yet, no more thunder.  
  
A sturdy swimmer, she began kicking her stubby legs, intending to get the most out of her unsupervised dip into the water. The storm raging above the surface was far from her mind now. That was when her emerald eyes saw it - a sunken city. Her eyes widened in curious wonder and she swam toward it.  
  
Enchanting towers sprawled lazily towards the surface of the Moonflow, green algae clinging to the sides of the muted gray stones. Smooth stone streets lay in broken shambles of their previous glory, a thick layer of silt burying it in most places. Shards of broken glass jutted from the frames of some windows, schools of small silver fishes darting through the openings. Doors lay cracked the broken by the slow decay of time.  
  
Rikku, eyes straining under the water, swam hard until she reached the closet building. She touched her small hand to it, watching at a layer of silt shifted, leaving behind an imprint of her hand. In wonder, she drew her name underneath it, convinced that it would last forever and ever. Then her eyes fell on the mansion.  
  
Like a moth drawn to the flame, she drew closer and closer to the decaying sight. Three stories high and constructed out of a muted white stone, the building was the grandest in the entire city...she was sure of it. An eerie green glow glimmered deep inside the mansion.   
  
She swam around outside, studying the building with curiosity. Then, when her lungs began to feel a strain for air, she saw It. A pale white hand and ghostly face staring out of the window. The image faded slowly in a wash of crimson blood and a chilling voice seemed to tear throughout the waters.  
  
Feeling as if spiders were climbing along her spine, Rikku swam up to the third story window and peeked inside. A decaying sofa rested in the center of a rotting wooden floor. In front of it, one leg torn completely off, was a water maggot infested coffee table. Then a pale hand smashed through the glass, seizing her by the front of her shirt and throwing her onto the couch with violent speed.  
  
Rikku screamed as she hit the decaying fabric, a cloud of silt flying up around her. Air whooshed out of her lungs in a rush. A powerful hand clasped around her throat, tightening painfully. Weakly she pulled at the steel-like grip clasping her neck. Then her vision blurred and her consciousness stole away silently in the murky depths.  
  
She woke in a large bed. Moth eaten sheets clinging to her form and ghostly white curtains - now stained a muted yellow - hovering around her in patches. It was chilly and dark, but she was alive.  
  
She slipped her feet out of the bed, and lowered herself to the floor. Her bare feet encountered a slimy surface and quickly pulled back up to the bed. She leaned over and stared at the floor, wondering what she had stepped in. Rotting green wood, slick with algae stared back up at her.   
  
"Wha?" she murmured softly, her voice echoing.  
  
"So you've waken...." a mysterious voice slithered over her arms, causing the fine hairs to stand upright in fright.  
  
"Who's there?" Rikku called out, shaken by the voice and her eerie surroundings. Her eyes swirled rapidly around the room in search of the voices owned. "Where are you?"  
  
"Beside you....behind you..... in front of you....." the voice responded, and Rikku felt a hand trail down her spine.  
  
She spun, anxious to see what was touching her. A whirl of white smoke drifted across the room and she felt something brush her face. Her head snapped back foreword, but there was nobody there either. She started to lay back in the bed, "I'm safe in bed..." she murmured comfortingly to herself. "Nothing can touch me while I'm in bed."  
  
"Wrong." The one word chilled her blood as the sheets began to fill out and a skeleton materialize. "Flee, if you value you life." She almost screamed, biting back the terrified cry at the last second.  
  
"I'm not afraid," she said stoutly, getting out of the bed and hurrying to the door. She heard cackling behind her, from the direction of the bed. She looked back only to stare at the empty eyeholes of the skeleton and note it's partially smashed skull. "I'm not afraid!" she repeated, her voice stronger. "I'm not afraid-"  
  
"Oh, but you are......Rikku....you are afraid...." the voice soothed, feeling as if it were caressing her very soul.  
  
"I'm not!" Rikku screamed, her voice suddenly shrill. She flung open the door, ignoring the deadly squeal the hinges made and flinging herself into the hallway. She slammed the double doors shut, seizing a stick from the ground and shoving it through the handles to keep the voice's owner inside.  
  
Then she looked at the stick closer. Ivory white bone, probably belonging to a leg stared back at her. It was not, she realized moments later, the only bone that wasn't broken. The hallway was littered with the bones of at least a hundred men. All of them had been cut and torn, scattered and destroyed. Half broken skulls grinned at her, teeth missing and flesh decayed.   
  
"Afraid?......Flee.....I enjoy a good chase......." the voice called out. "It has been too long since I hunted....too long since I last......killed and tasted flesh........."  
  
She swallowed hard and started walking down the hall, careful of where she stepped. She didn't want to touch any of the bones.   
  
The house was vast, she soon knew. The bones were everywhere, mingling with rotting furniture and suddenly waterless sea creatures. Once or twice, she had come across a window, however, the sight that greeted her was unwanted. The city still rested in eternal bliss at the bottom of the Moonflow. Silvery fishes still darted through the water gutted buildings. It was still submerged.   
  
A surreal quiet lay thickly about the mansion. Like a tomb, the mansion rested; all living in it dead, destroyed by a nameless evil. Only she was alive, and unwanted - but how long would that truly last for? The silence pushed around her, practically suffocating her. The dead stared at her, their vacant eyes hauntingly trained on her and their grins inviting. It was as if they were saying, "Shortly......you will join us.....shortly you will live in this tomb and never see sunlight again." And a silent presence kept pressing over her soul, causing the tingling feeling of many insect-like feet crawling all over her body.  
  
"What are you?" she called out, lonesome for the sound of someone else's voice - even if it belonged to the presence that was stalking her. She had stopped walking now, unable to get out and weary.  
  
"Death....decay.....waking death.......alive, but not....." the voice responded instantly, as if it had been waiting for her to speak before it made it's move. She felt her hair being brushed away from her face in a tender caress. "For you......I shall kill.......gently......" the voice spoke. "I.....promise that you won't feel anything....."  
  
Rikku hugged herself tightly and shuddered, pulling away from the deathly touch.   
  
"So little........" the voice drawled close to her neck, cool breath summoning goosebumps. "So....."  
  
Rikku didn't turn herself at all. She swung her hand to the side, encountering nothing where a head should have been. She sprang to her feet. "Who are you?" she demanded, her voice quivering with fright. "What do you want from me?"  
  
"My name......I've forgotten.....and I seek only to watch....your life slip away......sweet....little....Rikku...." She felt ghostly arms wrap around her and felt a fine trembling start. She sobbed, terrified beyond anything she had ever experienced. "Sssh...my sweet....." the voice soothed. "It'll all end....shortly."   
  
She felt her body begin to relax against the ghostly form. A warm fuzzy feeling grew in the middle of her chest, expanding outward to encase her entire body in a warm friendly glow. She began to feel safe. Terror seeped out of her body. "That's it.......sweet little.....love.....surrender your body....and soul.....Let me take you into......eternal darkness-"  
  
"No!" Rikku screamed, shooting to her feet. "I don't want eternal darkness!" The fuzzy feeling was suddenly gone, replaced by a burning pain in her back. Her hand reached back as far as it could, pressing lightly over the burning area and coming away with blood.  
  
She was in a different room then the hallway that she had spoken to the owner of the voice in. It was pitch black and bodies hung on the wall in various stages of decay. All of them had clearly been tortured to death. She seen the door and ran for it, panic engulfing her body.  
  
A shaft of purple light glowed in the hallway past the opening. She made for the light, wishing she had been killed by lightning earlier that day. Wishing that she were dead. "That will be arranged...... pet...." the voice said as she hit the opening in the wall and was repelled by green light. "If you...don't resist.....it won't hurt......"  
  
Rikku flung herself towards the doorway again only to be repelled. She picked herself up and flung herself at the door again, tears streaming down her face. "Please - " she began, and the one word was enough to sober her mad terror. "I won't beg," she whispered.   
  
"Then turn and face your fate," the voice said.   
  
"I won't!" Rikku exclaimed with quiet determination. But she turned slowly to look for her tormentor. Truly, she didn't expect to see him.   
  
A tall, thin man with jet black hair stood holding a long needle. His eyes, a mere mad glint beneath cracked glasses, were deep blue - almost black. He was paler then the white lab coat that he wore and pieces of skin kept falling off of his face. "Come," he invited. "Come and let me kill you."  
  
Rikku stared unmoving at him. "Are you stupid?" she finally asked softly. "I won't go and let you kill me. I'm leaving -"  
  
She felt a pain in her wrist and looked down, seeing the needle buried in her skin. "No.......if you resist.....you will feel pain before......the end...." Her eyes wide, Rikku began to back away from the zombie. He laughed, a chilling sound that cut along her skin like broken glass.  
  
She was shaking her head furiously now, backing away from him and whimpering. She had almost backed into the hallway when a pulse of green light flung her foreword and right into the zombie.  
  
His arms wrapped around her tightly, effortlessly picking her up off the soggy ground and taking her back to the blood soaked table. He flung her down, sending a burst of agony along her bleeding back. "My.... pretty..... it'll hurt now...."  
  
She was hyperventilating. Breaths coming in short, panicked gasps, her eyes diluted with fear. "Why can't I leave?" she asked, searching for something, anything to anchor her sanity too.  
  
"My sweet Rikku..... the bracelet will prevent you from ever leaving this house .......again." He picked up a small knife and ran it's cool blade along her face. "Ever... again...."  
  
Rikku pulled as far away from the blade touching her face as possible. Her eyes darted towards her left wrists, searching for the bracelet. It was constructed of a soft silver and had tiny green stones set periodically along it's beautiful band. It was just tight enough to pinch the skin. She attempted in pull it off in vain. The beautiful band tightened painfully, causing her to gasp.  
  
"It.... doesn't.... leave you.... You'll never get it off," the zombie purred. He leaned closer to her face, his rancid breath causing her to vomit. At the newfound closeness, she could see tiny bugs crawling in his skin.  
  
With a squeal, she propelled herself off the table and scrambled away from him on all fours. "Useless...." the word slithered along her spine. She was trembling now and couldn't stop. But her fear seemed to have reached it's apex. She felt oddly clear headed in spite of her body's obvious terror.   
  
She picked up a knife, watching the zombie closely. He laughed again, clearly amused at the thought of her attempting to hurt him. "I'm already..... dead." Her eyes never left the decaying face. In her hand, she turned the knife around. "Going to ... kill yourself? I.... won't let .... you...."  
  
She smashed the heavy handle down quickly. A sickly crack met her ears - inwardly, she flinched, regretting breaking a bone. However, her course was set. She smashed down repeatedly, busting her hand until tears streamed down her face and the bracelet fell off her wrist.  
  
The zombie was still laughing. "No.... courage ....." he was saying in a slithering voice. He was standing by the door, globs of skin hitting the floor. Keeping her eyes trained on him, she advanced, her broken hand held gently behind her back. "Come .... to death..." he whispered.  
  
Rikku didn't say anything. She didn't trust her voice not to emerge as high pitched and afraid. She waited until she was two feet away and then she ran. Brushing past him, she felt something wet and gooey hit her arm. Fearing that it was his skin, she didn't look, opting instead to just run.  
  
He chased her. Mindless fury pulsing at her back as she raced through the graveyard of the skeletons. Faster and faster she ran. And then she seen a window. Relieved, she picked up a bone as she was running and smashed it into the green tinted glass.  
  
A spray of murky water burst into the room, pushing her back a few steps. She felt the zombie's fingers linger on her clothes for a moment and managed to propel herself foreword and out the window. It was like a vacuum, trying to pull her back and she feared that she wasn't making any progress.  
  
Then all resistance vanished. She looked back at the house and noted the window was fixed. The zombie was staring at the window with a furious expression. He held up a knife, covered in crimson blood and pointed at her.  
  
It was more then enough. She kicked herself into overdrive, shooting through the thick waters without regard to her injuries. And then she broke the surface.  
  
The night air didn't seem oppressive anymore. It felt warm and inviting. The storm had passed. She paddled weakly to the bank and climbed out of the water. She had found more then she bargained for beneath the Moonflow. The sunken city was a nightmare she never wanted to relive.   
  
That meant she couldn't let anyone find out about it. Her father would send people down to salvage... and maybe they wouldn't return.   
  
Keyakku's pack lay open on the ground. She reached in with her unbroken hand and pulled out an X-potion. He would be mad if he learned that she had used it, but that was okay. She wasn't going to tell him.  
  
Once healed, she changed, pulling the bloody and dirty clothes from her body. She put them in the firepit and started a fire for breakfast. It was almost morning - the night was almost past.  
  
"I'll.... be.... around," his voice slithered along her skin.  
  
Then the sun rose.  
  
Author's notes; I wrote this on Halloween and just now decided to put it up. It's supposed to be a horror story, but that's not really my specialty. Hope you liked it.  
  
Thanks for reading,  
  
Kissa-chan 


End file.
